


It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

by vix_spes



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-26
Updated: 2011-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-01 03:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5190506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vix_spes/pseuds/vix_spes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leon and Percival try to decide whether or not to reveal their relationship to everybody at their annual Christmas party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isisanubis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isisanubis/gifts).



The snow had come early this year and by the middle of December it was firmly set in for Christmas. Children absolutely loved it but just about everybody else hated it; getting to work was a nightmare as, predictably, London’s transport system failed to cope. Two of the few adults that actually enjoyed it were Leon and Percival. When they had first met, one of the things that they had originally bonded over was their love of the Christmas season. Both of them absolutely adored it, to the extent that they acted like children over it. Nothing ever got overlooked or missed out. There was the Christmas tree. Fairy lights strung along over the place. Holly wreath pinned on the front door. Stir-up Sunday to make the Christmas cake and pudding. There were veritable mountains of mince-pies in the kitchen (that inevitably got palmed off on their friends), not to mention Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings. They would even drag their friends carolling (everyone taking it in turns to stop Gwaine singing ‘alternative lyrics’ once he’d been at the eggnog. Christmas wasn’t the only thing that they had bonded over. There had been rugby, cricket, British comedy series and James Bond marathons. The two of them were rapidly inseparable and, at some point during the second term of their first year at university they had become boyfriends rather than best friends. Except that nobody knew about their change in status. Not their friends, their colleagues or even their families.

Neither of them was really sure why they had never told anybody about them, why they had kept it secret but it had just become second nature by now, a habit that they couldn’t break. They’d been friends for years, ever since they’d met at university and when they had both moved to London after graduation for jobs it had just been logical that they find somewhere to rent together. They had a close group of friends and, should they decide to tell them that there was more to their relationship than friendship, they knew that they would be delighted for them. After all, Arthur and Merlin were in a relationship and had been for nearly as long as Leon and Percival (it would have been longer but it took Merlin a while to get over the whole ‘Arthur is an arrogant prat’ thing). They were just used to keeping things private and under wraps. That didn’t mean that they didn’t think about telling people though. They were slowly coming to the conclusion that maybe it would be best for them to tell their close friends, even if they didn’t tell anyone else. The majority of their friends were dating (with the exception of Gwaine who was playboy extraordinaire) and it would be nice for them to be affectionate in public if they wanted to be. Seeing as Christmas was looming and it was their favourite holiday, why not use their annual Christmas party to make their announcement?

Leon and Percival’s Christmas parties were legendary amongst their friends and, knowing that it was always held on the same weekend, people would actually keep the weekend free waiting for the invitation. The parties had only become more impressive once they had moved into their current apartment, a larger place that overlooked the Limehouse Basin. The fact that they now actually owned the place themselves meant that they could actually put up as many decorations as they wanted without having to face the wrath of their landlord. They had put their decorations up on the first of December, and wouldn’t be taking them down until just after New Year. There was always massive amounts of food and excessive amounts of alcohol, or at least they thought that they were excessive quantities of alcohol but they were never left with much afterwards. It was generally regarded by everybody as an opportunity to kick back, have too much to eat and drink while listening to cheesy Christmas music … and try to avoid Gwaine under the mistletoe.

This year was no different. The flat was already filling up and there were still people expected to arrive. Casting an eye around the room, Percival smothered a grin at Gwaine’s pitiful attempts to flirt with one of Percival’s co-workers Elena; there was no way that he was going to get anywhere and Percival knew that she was only letting him continue for her own amusement. As well as that of the other guests who were watching the free entertainment unfold. Seeing that his, that their, guests were perfectly fine for the moment and would cope perfectly well without either of their hosts for a while, he slipped away to the kitchen where Leon was overseeing the finishing touches to the food and the mulled wine.

“Gwaine’s trying it on with Elena.”

He got the desired reaction; Leon snorted with laughter and looked over his shoulder. “Is he failing miserably?”

“Yes and it’s amusing as hell to watch.” Percival stepped closer as Leon turned his attention back to the mulled wine on the stovetop. “Are you nearly done in here? I’m sure our guests would quite like to see you and not just me.”

“Five minutes more and then I’ll be done, I promise. All I have to do is finish this and take the last bits of food out of the oven.” Leon turned to smile at Percival and the taller man simply couldn’t resist leaning in for a quick kiss. As he pulled back, they both heard a gasp from the doorway and turned to see a wide-eyed Merlin stood there looking apologetic.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt anything, I just wanted to say hi to Leon and see if he needed a hand with anything. I didn’t realise that you two were … you know. Are you actually together? Is this a recent thing or has it been going on for ages? And I’m going to shut up now.”

“Just come in and shut the door Merlin.” Leon took the mulled wine off the hob and turned off the oven before exchanging a look with Percival. “This isn’t a recent thing. We’ve actually been together for longer than you and Arthur.”

“But why have you never said anything? Nobody would have cared, we’d have been happy for you. I think it’s fantastic.”

“Thank you Merlin. As for why we’ve never told anybody; well, there isn’t really a particular reason. Although, we have been thinking about telling people recently. It would make things a hell of a lot easier.”

“I’m not surprised. How have you coped? Surely there must have been times when you’ve nearly slipped.”

“Well yes, but we’re not all like you and Arthur Merlin. Some of us got past the randy teenager stage in our relationships.”

“Hey!” Merlin protested the comment even though he knew that there was more than an element of truth to it. “We’re not that bad; at least not most of the time.”

“What aren’t we that bad at? I assume that you’re talking about me Merlin.” Arthur had wandered into the kitchen with his normal disregard for closed doors.

Leon broke into the conversation, concentrating on plating up all of the food and wanting to avoid Arthur and Merlin getting into one of their little domestics. “Yes we were talking about you _and_ Merlin but it doesn’t really matter. If you could help and take some of these out I’d really appreciate it.” Crisis averted.

With Leon coming out of hiding in the kitchen, the party seemed to kick up a gear as both of their hosts joined them. Food and alcohol was being demolished at a rate of knots, the alcohol in particular, and this was obvious in hilarious attempts at dancing that were going on. Gwaine in particular was strutting around and still flirting madly with whoever he possibly could. Gwen and Lance were being ridiculously sappy and slow-dancing in a corner with Morgana looking at them as though she couldn’t work out if they were adorably sweet or sickeningly sweet. Merlin had been flailing around the cleared area being used as a temporary dance floor until Arthur had captured him under one of the many bunches of mistletoe hung around the place. They would be occupied for the foreseeable future. Even with the flat full of their friends from university, work and various other places, and even though nobody knew about their relationship, the two of them couldn’t help but gravitate towards each other, standing much closer than they would were they only best friends.

“We need to talk … about what Merlin saw and said earlier.”

Percival nodded. “Balcony?”

The two of them grabbed winter coats and made their way out onto the balcony that their flat had, one of the reasons that they had chosen this one in particular. The temperature had fallen to well below freezing and snow was threatening again. They stuck close to the building in an attempt to not get too cold while they were having their discussion.

“Look, what do you want to do? Do you want to do anything? We don’t have to rush into this, make our decision right this minute.”

“We’ve been dancing around making a decision about this for years. We’ve been together since we were eighteen, we both know that we’re in this for the long haul and I think we both know what we want.” Percival gestured through the window at where Merlin sat curled up with Arthur, the blond’s arm wrapped around skinny shoulders, as they simultaneously chatted to Morgana and laughed at Gwaine. “We want that, to be able to do that with our friends and not simply pretend that we are just friends.”

“So we’re doing this, we’re telling them.” Leon couldn’t help the smile that was currently crossing his face.

“We are.” Percival took two steps closer so that he was pressing Leon up against the wall. “You ready for this?”

“Yes. It’s taken long enough.” Leon tilted his head slightly and kissed Percival gently. “Come on, we should do this before everybody gets so completely wasted that they can’t actually comprehend what we’re saying to them.”

The two of them stepped back inside, closing and locking the balcony door behind them and closing the drapes to keep out the cold. As they passed the corner with the music system, Leon dialled down the volume although it didn’t seem to make a difference to any of the partying guests before they stood in the middle of the room.

“Everybody, we’ve got something that we want to tell you…” Leon paused there, struggling to find the right words to use.

Percival couldn’t be bothered. He eyed the mistletoe hanging from the light fixture above him and pulled Leon flush against his body and leant down, pressing their lips together. Leon squirmed slightly against him for several seconds as though uncomfortable with the fact that they were doing this in public before he relaxed into the kiss. He gave a low moan deep in his throat as Percival cupped his jaw in one large hand and used the leverage to tilt Leon’s head just so in order to get precisely the right angle. Leon wrapped his arms around Percival’s neck and opened his mouth as Percival’s tongue traced his bottom lip, allowing them to engage in a slow slide of lips and tongue that neither of them wanted to hurry despite their audience. All of the chatting and general noise faded out and disappeared as everybody realised that no, they weren’t seeing things and that yes, Leon and Percival were really kissing each other rather passionately in the middle of their living room. Other than the music system playing cheesy Christmas songs, the assembled guests stood in silence until their hosts broke apart and then all hell broke loose.

Most of the noises were shouts and gasps of surprise, cries and questions as to how long this had been going on and cheering that they were fairly certain came from both Merlin and, no doubt, Gwaine. When they finally pulled apart for breath, they were bombarded with questions that they both answered, mainly to do with how long they had been together and why they had never told anybody, the answers greeted with complaints about how idiotic they had been and how they should have told everybody years ago, that everybody would have been happy for them and they shouldn’t have had to hide. Of course, there was the question/comment from Morgana that this explained why, despite the second bedroom having all of Leon’s belongings in it the bed in there was always pristine and never seemed to have been slept in. Just the knowledge that their friends now knew about their relationship seemed to be a huge weight off their shoulders. For the rest of the evening, neither of them seemed to be able to keep their hands off each other. The touches weren’t sexual in nature, far from it, it was more a case of now that they had ‘permission’ as it were to touch, they simply couldn’t help themselves from that or from the occasional kisses that they bestowed upon each other. They no longer felt that they had to act simply as friends rather than the lovers that they were.

“It’s snowing again.” Merlin’s call came from where he stood by the now open drapes to the balcony doors.

Those guests that were still remaining wandered over to Merlin, commenting on the snow and how beautiful it was (or at least it would be beautiful while they were still inside in the warmth; when it came to the time for them to leave they would be cursing it to the heavens). As Percival stood up from his seat on the sofa, Leon grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down to the sofa, tipping into Leon as he did so.

“What did you do that for? It’s snowing again!”

 “No regrets?”

Percival smiled, the action completely lighting up his face as he leant in and kissed Leon gently. “No regrets, not at all. In fact I’ll show you how much I regret it later when this lot have buggered off. Now come on, it’s snowing!”

**Author's Note:**

> If you would prefer to comment on LJ, you can do so [here](http://vix-spes.livejournal.com/77979.html)


End file.
